A few weeks ago I had an experience in nature that was very spiritually significant to me. On a particular saturday morning I was prepared to paint my second "quad" painting (a painting composed of 4 stretched canvas sections due to its size - each section is 54' wide x 88' high totaling about 9' x 15'). I was planning to start this painting during the morning; in mid afternoon go with my wife to the celebration memorial of a very mature, righteous, man of Yahweh; and return to my studio/home to continue painting.

I followed this schedule and, returning home from the celebration slowly driving down our long dirt driveway, we passed a peach tree I have not done anything with for many years. I was driving and the tree was on my wife's passenger side of the road. My wife was glancing at this peach tree and suddenly asked if I saw the peach. I said "no" and she said "stop", so I did. We got out and walked under the peach tree, looking up at one fully formed, very large, beautiful ripe peach.

You might say, " Well, of course - it was a peach tree". But it was the only peach on the whole tree. There was no evidence of there having been any other peaches at all on this tree or on the ground below. Just one and it was just about to drop. So I reached a branch above my head and pulled on it to get the branch with the peach low enough to remove the peach. I handed it to my wife and she asked if I wanted some of it as we re-entered the car and began to drive on home. I said no, go ahead. Because I was paying attention to the driveway I just assumed she progressed to eat the peach.

Later in the house I went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator and found half of the peach in a cup. I picked it up and ate it. It was absolutely the most ripe, sweet, tender, delicious peach I have ever eaten. I have told this story to a few people and one person said there haven't been any peaches in NW Arkansas this year because of the timing of a freeze in the Spring.

So what is the point of this story? To begin with as I saw this amazing solitary peach and realized my wife just saw it because she was the passenger and not driving and "happened" to look up at just the right moment to see this peach, which was virtually buried in the leaves - I knew this was very spiritually prophetic (revealing) of something significant for us to know. The rest of that day's story is I returned to paint on this quad painting, and before I quit for the night I realized this was becoming a very unusual and strong painting at the end of a very unusual day.

I finished the painting a few days later and yes it is a very unusual and strong painting - it is just as if Yahweh is saying, " ... here is something in my heart and mind and now I have been able to fully give it to you to manifest". I had (still am) been standing in the gap interceding heavily for several couples with impossible relationship problems. To see this one beautiful fruit on that tree and realize Yahweh caused both of us to find and harvest and eat it caused me to remember Yahweh is the Being of cycles evidenced in His Creation - He doesn't plow forever but brings to the moment of birth and brings delivery. Faith walking with Yahweh is full of such cycles. The bearing of fruit that remains, that is rich in substance and perpetual in purpose, is the harvest end of the cycle that starts with faithfully plowing, preparing, planting, cultivating, waiting. So I received this prophetic peach as an encouragement that I was entering a season of harvesting the fruit of long days of intercessory labor. I wanted to establish an "ebenezer" to commemorate this remarkable weekend, so I called this painting "onepeachykeeniris".

Since then I have pressed into Yahweh for deeper understanding of this single peach moment:

one possible reason the peach was so good was it was the only peach the tree produced during impossible obstacles

I have been interceding for couple relationships -Yahweh brought this peach to my wife and I together and we both ate it

Yahweh brought this peach to us at just the right moment, a ripened condition right before it would drop to the ground, so we could have it and it not be wasted - He has a perfect timing for His anointing to be release through us so it will find a good environment to flourish in and not "spill out on the ground and be wasted".

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I began a serious commitment to understand visual art as a means of dynamic expressive communication in the summer of 1967 and have passionately continued through this day in either painting, thinking about painting, teaching painting, or any of the above at the same time through many different seasons of my life.